Characters that almost single-handedly ruined a television show

Some characters throw off the balance of our favorite TV shows, sometimes nearly ruining the series’ legacy. These are just a few characters that made viewers want to kick in their television sets:

Cousin Oliver — The Brady Bunch

Introduced in the fifth season of the Brady Bunch, as all the Brady Kids were starting to age out of being precocious young kids, Cousin Oliver was reputed to be Carol’s nephew, who was dumped with the family while his parents were traveling on a South American archaeology dig. We soon learned why they’d rather not be around him.

Oliver was a regular for all of five episodes — in his big debut, he believes himself to be a jinx after causing problems over and over. Sometimes, the stories write themselves. Soon, Oliver was involved in a mix-up where he and Bobby Brady fell under the mistaken notion that Alice’s beloved butcher friend, Sam, was actually trading secrets to the Russians and was going to trap Mike Brady in a meat locker. Yes, before hackers, the Russians apparently employed mild-mannered meat men. When Cousin Oliver shows up on The Americans, watch out.

Oliver’s tendency to cause accidents when he was around helped to change the balance of the series, becoming something of a real-life evil Tiki that cursed the family. The Brady Bunch was canceled just a few episodes later and Robbie Rist, who played Oliver, wasn’t even told the series was done, only learning when he found out he wasn’t going back to work.

While the overall legacy of the Bradys stands tall, Oliver was that “jump the shark” character that made eyes roll, so perhaps it’s fitting that he’s been involved in creating the music for the Sharknado film series.

Scrappy Doo — Scooby Doo

For decades, Scooby Doo and his pals at Mystery Inc. have unmasked ghoulish villains who no doubt would have gotten away with their crimes had it not been for those meddling kids. In 1979, however, there was a push to cancel Scooby, due to repetitive episodes and sagging ratings. Producers Hanna-Barbera pulled out a Hail Mary pass, introducing Scooby’s feisty nephew Scrappy Doo, hoping he would save the day. The series was renewed, although the diminutive pup would cause a ripple effect still felt today.

While Scooby and his best pal Shaggy were always afraid of the monsters they faced, tiny canine sparkplug Scrappy was the exact opposite. Like a frat boy with roid rage, Scrappy was always looking for a fight, screaming lines like “Lemme at ’em!” and “Puppy power!” Scrappy soon tossed the natural balance that came from Scooby and Shaggy’s cowardly reactions to the mysteries upside down. While Scooby and Shaggy’s antic often set up gags, and even helped to accidentally catch the bad guys, Scrappy had but one trait: he challenged everyone to a fight before being yanked away.

Despite Scrappy sucking the air out of the room, he even got equal title billing with Scooby for the following season, while Fred, Velma and Daphne — despite their years of service – were now benched. Imagine losing your job to the dog you can’t housebreak.

Years later, in Scooby’s first live-action feature film, Scrappy was portrayed as a disrespectful, exiled member of Mystery, Inc., who urinated on other members of the team (good times) before — spoiler – he gets revealed as the big bad. So to review: Scooby, all time classic. Scrappy? Best left in the kennel.

Wesley Crusher — Star Trek: The Next Generation

When Star Trek: The Next Generation first hit warp speed, the idea was to continue Gene Roddenbery’s vision of a united world seeking out new life and civilizations in outer space. What no one expected was the most annoying addition to the Trek mythos since Tribbles: Wil Wheaton’s Wesley Crusher.

Even for the future, his story made no sense. Wesley consistently failed to make it into the Starfleet Academy, yet somehow remained on board the Enterprise. Even more mind-blowing, he regularly gave opinions, stood up to senior officers, and came up with ideas that saved the day. He was the character who somehow had the knack for all the answers and the plucky attitude to match them. What he didn’t have, however, was respect. Not even getting stabbed earned this kid any street credibility.

Wesley was routinely rejected for having no logical reason to be as smart, as opinionated, or as helpful as he was. Eventually, Wesley was routinely smacked down by Captain Picard, and even his own mother. The hatred crystallized with the infamous scene where Picard snapped, “Shut up Wesley!”, a moment immortalized as both Internet meme fodder and an entry in the urban dictionary.

Wesley would exit as a regular in the fourth season, allowing TNG to right itself without having to rely on someone who couldn’t ride Space Mountain alone. Wheaton would later admit the criticism of the character hurt him personally, but given how he has been given his own asteroid and remains a rising power in geek culture, he’s probably gotten over it. If he hasn’t, well, then shut up Wil!

Screech — Saved By The Bell: The College Years

Dustin Diamond peaked in life when he portrayed Screech for NBC’s Saturday morning opus Saved By The Bell. Designed to be the nerdy genius sidekick to Zack Morris, Screech pined over Lisa Turtle, had a dance named after him, and was a proud member of Bayside High. Screech was light comedy relief that worked.

In 1993, the cast graduated and made the jump to prime-time, pursuing greater education in Saved By The Bell: The College Years. With the move, most of the characters grew in some fashion. Schemer Zack Morris learned responsibility and humility before putting a ring on Kelly Kapowski. Jock A.C. Slater embraced his Latino heritage. Jesse Spano went all Showgirls. Screech, however, was a different story.

Formerly goofy in a cute way, Screech’s path to college apparently included a Flowers for Algernon reenactment, as his intelligence dissipated to the point where he couldn’t tell the difference between frozen and cooked turkeys. His voice grew more grating, his vocabulary more simplistic — he quickly went from being the comedy sidekick that allowed others to play straight man, to someone you wanted to see shoved out a window. Even Screech’s own best friends verbally knocked him to his face. Dude was useless.

Screech would live on through additional SBTB incarnations, but the damage had been permanently done. Screech was scorched Earth. Diamond’s real life issues, including time in the pokey after a stabbing, only helped to reinforce Screech’s bad rep. Despite twelve years playing Screech, Diamond was the only cast member not asked to take part in a reunion sketch for Jimmy Fallon. At least the audience was saved from having to endure one last Screech.

Seven — Married…With Children

FOX’s first hit was Married…With Children, a series that’s still fondly remembered today. One character is all but forgotten, however, and that may be for the best, as he was a neon symbol that the end was near.

Seven Wanker (yep, that was his real name), after being abandoned by Peggy’s family, is taken in by the Bundys, opening the door for Al’s misery to continue with a new mouth to feed. Still, Al declares him to be a “True Bundy” after the kid kicks someone in the groin during a party. But, with no additional back story and a character too cute for what worked on a non-traditional comedy, Married began to list sideways.

Shane Street, the child actor hired for the role, had little experience, and the audience wasn’t reacting well. The series recognized this, quickly claiming Seven had gotten into the D’arcy family home next door, refusing to leave. Soon, he was retconned out altogether, never spoken of again beyond a few quick gags that reinforced his exiled. Married went on to last another four seasons, so it turned out to be the right move.

While there has been talk of a Married spin-off being in the works, expect Seven to remain forgotten, another victim of the Bundy Curse.

Maya Herrera — Heroes

NBC’s Heroes brought forth a comic book mentality, an interconnected world and sense of adventure before such a thing became completely oversaturated in cinema and television alike. When the series climaxed in its debut season, creator Tim Kring was left with quite the problem, namely trying to top a season that introduced lovable time traveler Hiro Nakamura, power-slurping villain Sylar and the iconic phrase “Save the cheerleader, save the world.”

When Heroes returned for its sophomore season, they gave it the old college try with the addition of a new character, Maya Herrera. Played by the gorgeous Dania Ramirez, Maya and her twin brother crossed the border from Mexico into the United States, seeking help in controlling her powers, as black liquid leaked from her eyes, poisoning everyone in the vicinity. Great party trick.

A great amount of time was spent developing Maya’s story, which was met with apathetic viewer interest. She represented Season 2 going off the rails, with no hero to rescue it. Her character didn’t connect, lost among the other slow, plodding stories of the season. Worse, Maya remained mostly independent of the series’ established characters. She was seen as an intermission, not an addition to the mythos of the show. Maya showed little prowess as a hero, had repetitive scenes and ended up being hoodwinked by Sylar, who predictably kills her brother. He died. Viewers shrugged.

With a writer’s strike causing the season to close with just a handful of episodes, Maya is cured, and rushed out of the series. Kring showed some tact (rare for Hollywood), admitting they had screwed up the season, specifically mentioning the newer characters, while apologizing to fans. Kring promised to get things right, so Maya was never seen again, curing Heroes of its own poison, at least until it was canceled, rebooted, and canceled again.

Stephanie Mills — All In The Family

If you’ve owned a television in the last forty years or so, you’re well aware of Archie Bunker, the main character of the classic comedy All In The Family. By Season 9, the grumpy Archie was looking forward to finally having some quiet time, as his daughter and son-in-law had moved to the West Coast, but before he could chill, his nine-year-old grand-niece Stephanie Mills is dropped at the Bunker doorstep. Before you can say “cast addition,” Stephanie is taken in, despite Archie’s predictable protests, and he and his wife begin to care for the girl as their own. Of course, Stephanie reveals herself to be Jewish, and extremely liberal in her views, making her the new lightning rod for the conservative Archie to react to.

The addition of Stephanie brought immediate criticism for allowing Archie to grow softer. Her presence also placed too much sentimentality on a series that had hung its hat on its realistic, thought-provoking conversations and plots. Now, Stephanie’s emergency appendectomy, family members trying to take her back, and more commonplace sitcom fare became the norm. This lead to grumbling that marked a new, failed era for the series (it barely made it a year with Stephanie before being canceled), as it crossed over into spin-off territory.

Archie Bunker’s Place, which premiered soon after All In The Family got the ax, featured a now-widowed Archie managing his bar. Since everyone else was gone, Stephanie takes on a much larger role in the series, much to the chagrin of those already tired of her. ABP barely lasted four years, meaning a little girl accomplished what Archie’s meathead son-in-law never could — she successfully annoyed viewers to the point that they their hands up. Stifle!

Nellie Bertram — The Office

When Steve Carell’s Michael Scott left The Office during its seventh season, a massive void was left to be filled in the faux-reality world of Scranton, PA’s Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Brit Eleanour Donna “Nellie” Bertram soon debuted as a potential suitor to Michael’s throne, despite her having no actual qualifications for any of the positions she was trying to get hired for. What’s more, she had horrible social skills, was extremely lonely, depressed, and obsessed with adopting a child. The series also failed to give viewers any reason to care about why she was suddenly dominating the series. Just like real life, an idiot was now seemingly in charge, one who somehow made Michael seem like a genius. That’s a tall, sad order to fill.

Played far too well as having no redeeming qualities whatsoever by Catherine Tate, Nellie was decried for a downturn in the series’ quality. After all, how does one find sympathy in a shopaholic (she once bought 13 pianos at once) with massive credit card debt, who possesses a complete lack of intelligence, and has been crowbarred onto the show? She also pretty much kidnaps a baby in the series finale, taking off for Europe with it.

Nellie is every crazy ex you’ve ever had, all rolled into one. Like your ex, no one misses her.

April Nardini — Gilmore Girls

There was great celebration when Gilmore Girls was revived by Netflix, until fans learned that April Nardini would also be returning. Coined the “Jar Jar Binks” of the series, April debuted in Season 6 as the previously unknown teenage daughter of Luke. When she steals and tests Luke’s DNA as part of her nerdy science project and learns that he is her father, it’s the beginning of the end for Luke and Lorelai’s long-building love.

At first, this new information is so incomprehensible to Luke he can no longer commit to marriage. To make matters worse, he hides the reason for his decision — when Lorelai finds out, he then asks her to keep her distance from April. Things come to a head and, when he’s finally ready to commit, it’s too late. The star-crossed lovers of Stars Hollow find themselves done for good.

For fans of the series, this breakup was the equivalent of having their hearts ripped out, and there was only one person to blame — April. Adding to the dislike was that this gawky 12-year-old girl, whose idea of a good time was counting salt shakers in the diner, was now the focus of Luke’s attention as he fought to gain custody. Viewers rejected her with a passion.

Years later, regarding that negative response to her character, actress Vanessa Marano would admit, “No, it was not great, but at the same time in a weird way, I feel like it was actually kind of great that that happened.” Still, Marano admits she understood the rejection, because she herself was conflicted over the character. In fact, she admits she “sort of hated” April herself. When you hate the character you play, there is no greater proof that they were no good, for the show or the viewers. April had better hope karma doesn’t come her way in Gilmore‘s apparently continuing revival.